Providing a query to a search engine on a network, such as the Internet, often results in large numbers of search results being returned to the user, each reference presumably having information determined to be relevant to the search query. Unfortunately, there is no easy way for a user receiving such search results to know what is really of interest to him/her without reviewing the informational content of most, if not all, the search results returned to him/her. However, such a review is at least burdensome if not physically impossible in cases where an extremely large number of search results (e.g., 2,000 to 100,000 or more) are provided to the user. Accordingly, the user has the option of spending a substantial amount of time reviewing the search results, and/or reviewing only portions of the search results and hoping that the information he/she desires occurs in the search results reviewed.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to have a capability for the user to obtain such search results in an order that puts the results of more likely interest or importance to the user toward the front/top of the list of returned search results, and/or puts the results of less likely interest or importance to the user toward the end of the list of returned search results. More particularly, it would be desirable to use information indicative of past user interests (and/or the interests of other users “similar” to the user) to order the user's subsequent search results so that the results more likely to be of interest to the user are presented first.